The Dinosaur Prank

Henry enjoying the Falls

Most of you will know my dear friend, Henry Brontasaurus, who has been on many adventures with me. We met in London, went bowling in Bray, had many party nights out in Fitzgeralds and even rubbed shoulders with some famous people at the Radio Nova 1st Birthday Party. It was never a question as to whether or not he would accompany me to Canada. He loved New York; tried his first twinkie, went to Central Park, Times Square, etc. Been to Burlington and Niagara Falls so far in Canada and am looking forward to showing him more of the sights over the next year or two.

I had waited a little while before I introduced him to everyone at the hostel. After all, I was trying to make a good impression on these people and telling anyone about the toy dinosaur that you bring everywhere with you and consider part of your family is a little strange. Although, strangely enough, once most people have met me, they don't find the story that weird at all. But I digress.....

Me, Henry & the Irish Rebels

So, a couple of weeks ago, I brought him down. There was a band called the Irish Rebels playing at the hostel and I figured this would be a perfect time to introduce him. It was all going swimmingly. Everyone was getting in photos with him (including the band!) and we were having a great time. The next morning, I decided that perhaps it would be good for Henry to live at the hostel for a while, get a bit of independence and what not. I placed him on top of the speaker in reception so he could keep an eye on everything that was going on and off I went. I was going for dinner at Gillian's that night and knew that she would like to see him so dropped back to the hostel to pick him up. I couldn't see him on top of the speaker and panicked immediately. The others that were working were taking a look around for him but he was nowhere to be found. I rang Aine, who had been working when I left him there and she said she hadn't noticed whether or not he was still there when she left. I was distraught and do not mind admitting that there was a tear in my eye. Poor Tom, he had to listen to me rant and rave all the way to Gillian's, where I then spent the start of the evening bitching about where my dinosaur might be.

Poor Henry...

Suddenly, I got a friend request on Facebook from a character named Rambo Hunter. The accompanying message stated that 'We have Henry. If you ever want to see your dinosaur again, you better meet all of our demands'  There were also some very distressing photos; Henry in a frying pan, Henry with a butcher's knife to his throat, Henry hanging from his own bow from a light fixture and, my own personal favourite, Henry tied to a chair with a note asking for my help. The demands were as follows; a) $20, half in dollar coins, half in quarters; b) one can of coke; c) bar of Galaxy chocolate; d) bag of Tayto crisps. Now, these dastardly creatures had very cleverly set the deadline before payday as they obviously knew how I would struggle to scrape the necessary demands together. They did not count on the resourcefulness of one James Stafford, as well as my own ability to take things to a new extreme. Hence, the foundation of the Dinosaur Abduction Awareness Organisation and the set up of a silent auction in order to raise the funds necessary, including items such as dinner cooked by Gillian, an arm wrestle with Sally, a voodoo doll made of the hair shaved from Tom's head, among other items. I even managed to get the plight discussed on the radio in Dublin by my dear stalkee Marty Miller on Radio Nova.

Now I wish I could tell you that there was (as was planned by me) a SWAT team assault on the main suspects house in the middle of the night but in the end I didn't deem it appropriate. I was depending on the good nature of the kidnappers that they would not keep me in suspense for too long. What I had not predicted was the power of a nagging girlfriend. Without much evidence (apart from the pure gut instinct that I had), I accused the Scouse trouble maker, Joe Newsham. Despite his protestations, nothing could sway me from my conviction. 2 minutes after the deadline, I sent the following threatening message to Áine 'Look, is Joe gonna give Henry back to me or what?'. Her reply; 'Yes, the fool. He's gonna drop it into the hostel tomorrow before he heads off to New York'.

Moral of the Story - don't leave your dinosaur unprotected around a criminally minded Scouse. And don't worry, when the film rights are purchased, I will ensure to change the ending to something more exciting.

My Birthday in Toronto

I wake up, yawn and stretch and realise 3 things in quick succession.

1. It's my birthday! I'm 26 now, better get my shit together and become a responsible adult.
2. My arm is asleep. I reach up to scratch my face and poke myself in the eye. Not nice.
3. Where the f#@k am I?

I was confused for about 12 solid minutes. I looked around and I spotted my suitcase on the floor and pictures of Gillian's twin on the walls. Oh right, I'm in Toronto in the Plummer family home with my one year working holiday visa to live and work in Canada for the year. But all of that serious stuff later. Let's get on with the birthday first! I had one card already from dear Helena and Brian (the new Mr & Mrs Byrne!) who had given me a card when I met them in New York. How sweet; on their honeymoon, they remembered to get ME a frickin birthday card. Super special people (in a good way, obviously).

I made my way to downtown Toronto to meet Gillian from her office before we headed off to St. Lawrence Market for lunch. There is so much there, my head was practically spinning. Gillian kept asking me what I wanted; I'm terribly indecisive when it comes to food choices, especially when there were so many delicious things to choose from! I ended up getting a veal sandwich (I think, I just ordered the same thing as Gillian). Looking forward to going back again and spending some time there and maybe actually buying some stuff for home cooking next time!

After that, we took a stroll through Union Station and over to the Steam Whistle Brewery to take a tour. Can you think of many things that I would enjoy more than going to a brewery for my birthday? The tour was great, short enough so you don't get bored and the story of how the brewery started is really interesting. The brewery was started by 3 guys who were fired from their jobs working at another microbrewery in Ontario. They were initially going to call the company '3 Fired Guys' but later decided that this was not an ideal marketing tool. They went with the name 'Steam Whistle' as an homage to the 1950's when the blowing of a steamwhistle at 5pm signalled the end of the work day and meant that it was time for a nice cold beer. They still have the logo '3FG' on all of their bottles though! I could go on and on about the virtues of this amazing beer and the company's innovative green initiatives but you should check out the website for yourselves. Or better yet, just fly on over here and visit - I'd have no problem going again!
Because it was my birthday, they gave me a free bottle of delicious Steam Whistle beer (not that I needed it with the copious amounts of free samples that we were getting!) Invited the nice Scottish guy that we met and his Brazilian girlfriend along for dinner. He was all for it, she didn't seem so eager though. He argued with her about the fact that she wanted to go home and get changed first and said that they would meet us later. They seemed like good fun - unfortunately, the Brazilian chick must have won the argument as they never made an appearance :(

We went for dinner in Earls Restaurant with Gillian's twin Kate and a friend of theirs Amy (another Irish girl, surprise surprise). There was obviously only one thing that I was going to order - fillet steak with pepper sauce. Mmmmm. Cooked to perfection, served with crispy shoestring fries. I was happy. Henry was particularly happy when the sticky toffee pudding came out and Kate let him have some of it!

Moral of the Story - birthdays are fun in an international setting, especially when they're not fake birthdays (only had one or two of them in my life). Also, Steam Whistle beer = delicious!

New York, New York!

This time around, I had planned to really get my act together and do some proper tourist stuff in New York. I nearly managed it too, got that Central Park tour done and had a big Downtown Tour planned for the Saturday morning and afternoon. Of course, then my life got in the way. I headed out to Hoboken on the Friday night to see some of my old friends from my Summer J1, ended up getting pretty inebriated. Fell asleep on the train on the way home (just like the old days!) so didn't get back to my hostel until after 6am. Obviously managed to sleep in and miss the tour. Didn't seem like the worst idea once I woke up and saw the snow 3 inches thick outside the window.

Later that night, I headed out to Woodlawn in the Bronx to meet up with a friend of mine. Unfortunately, they were going to a Halloween Party and him and all of his friends had these amazing costumes on. I was in jeans. We went out to this bar called the Heritage, where I managed to speak to one American person the entire night. Everyone was Irish, it was like being in Dublin almost. Ended up in a nightclub that was like Coppers on a slightly smaller scale. You could even smoke in the bar; I got so excited that I chain-smoked 18 cigarettes in about half an hour. Woodlawn is a world of it's own, great place to visit but not sure my liver would survive living there! I did pass Yankee Stadium on my way back into the city although I was too hungover to take a picture.

On the Monday, I went on a free walking tour in Brooklyn. We had the cutest old guide named Ed. First tour guide I've met who announced that he rarely said 'Follow me everyone', it was more likely to be 'Hey guys, wait up!' So old and sweet. He took us on the Subway out to Brooklyn where we walked a little bit around the Brooklyn Heights area then down to the Promenade where there were some breathtaking views of Lower Manhattan, including the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and the Brooklyn Bridge. I probably took around 10 million pictures of the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg Bridges.

That night, I met up with the new Mr and Mrs Byrne fresh from their relaxing week in Cancun, Mexico. We went for dinner in the lovely Tír na nÓg restaurant by Penn Station before heading up to Times Square, an area I hadn't actually set foot within 10 blocks of this time around being there. I knew I needed a picture of Henry the Dinosaur there too! Found an Irish bar (like there is an opportunity to drink in a bar that's not Irish around Times Square) and had a few drinks. Nice way to end my trip.

Moral of the Story - no matter how many times you visit NYC, it is still possible not to visit a single museum. Make sure to get out and see something other than the traditional sights. Also make sure to visit the boroughs. You meet some special people out there. You know who you are.

When Henry Met Helena

Me and Henry on one of our many nights out together.....

As Henry will be coming with me on my travels and most likely featuring quite heavily in my blog, I thought I should introduce him properly to those of you who may not have met him yet and will be wondering 'what in God's name is she doing with a toy dinosaur?'

Back in February, myself and some dear friends were taking a trip to London for a weekend to get us out of a particular funk we'd all been in at work. It was crazy busy and we were all feeling the pressure so a nice break was called for. Leaving the office that Friday evening, we were possibly the giddiest people in the city. Picture a group of 6 year olds leaving a birthday party after ingesting at least 2kgs of sugar each and you'll come close to what we were like that evening. 

After a rather hilarious journey to the airport (where I'm sure everyone else on the Aircoach was just itching to ask us to shut the hell up), we topped up our excitement with some delicious free drinks in the Business Lounge - passes to which are still a perk to enjoy while working in the travel industry! One short plane journey later and we had arrived in Heathrow airport. While waiting for our bags, we noticed a lonely toy dinosaur waiting by the luggage carousel. After a few furtive glances around, we determined that there was no one around who seemed to be missing a dinosaur and in the playful mood we were in, nothing seemed more natural than to take him with us. 

We did spend a few minutes trying to figure out what to name him; George and Henry were the 2 names that we eventually had to choose between and Henry won out. When you see him in person, he looks like a Henry  really. We played an excellent game on the Tube on the way to our apartment 'who can stand up the longest between stops and not fall over without holding on to anything'. Henry won obviously but only because his centre of gravity is so much closer to the floor.

He came everywhere with us that weekend, the London Bridge Experience, out clubbing. When we took him to lunch, I put him in the middle of the table. The waitress came to take our order and I introduced her to Henry. Obviously trying to play along, she asked if Henry would like anything to drink. I, being the lovely person I am, turned around and said 'of course not, he's a dinosaur'. Poor woman.

Since then, he's sort of become the office mascot. He's been to every office party we've had since then. He's been bowling in Bray. He celebrated Canada Day. He's even rubbed shoulders with the stars of Radio Nova (that's a whole other story!). A lot more lies in store for him, I'm sure.

Moral of the Story - when you find a random child's toy, don't just discard it. It could become a good friend.....or even just a conversation starter at parties!